During a discussion on former President Donald Trump’s latest indictment related to January 6, MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle went on a bit of a digression on Wednesday’s The 11th Hour to discuss Fitch downgrading the U.S.’s credit rating, which according to her was caused by “was the chaos created by the GOP” including January 6. Of course, Fitch’s own explanation was a little bit more complicated.
Ruhle was joined by former Reps. Tim Ryan and Charlie Dent, a progressive Democrat and moderate-to-liberal Republican respectively, and addressing Ryan she wondered:
The power of our democracy, the power of our economy, Tim, just yesterday, Fitch, the rating agency, downgraded U.S. credit. And one of the factors was what happened on January 6th, was the gridlock, was the chaos created by the GOP, by these falsehoods and the misinformation getting pushed. Do people realize this, and how fragile things are? And do they care enough?
The same Fitch official who mentioned January 6 and Republicans moving further right also blamed Democrats for going further left, but naturally Ruhle left that second part out.
Ruhle wasn’t the only one who selectively chose which parts of Fitch’s report to cite. Ryan would do the same, but not before failing to realize he kicked the ball into his own goal:
You know, I don't think they really understand or know. I mean, we've had this conversation, how many times, Steph? People are out there working, they're doing their jobs, they’re raising their kids, they’re trying to make a better -- their family. That's a grind and unfortunately, in 2023, the United States for a lot of people, that means you're working 12, 14 hours a day, you’re working six or seven days a week. You don't have the luxury, you know, 11:30 at night to turn on and, like, catch what's going on politically here.
And who is president in 2023?
With Ruhle nodding in agreement, Ryan continued, “but it's also, you know, huge tax cuts, and me and Charlie may have a conversation about, this but the huge tax cuts that blew a huge hole in the deficit after two wars and after the Bush tax cuts, yeah, of course, you know, we're running deficits that are huge.”
In their “rating action commentary”, Fitch does not use the word “wars” even once. While, it does mention tax cuts, it also mentions “new spending initiatives” and the lack of entitlement reform, “Additionally, there has been only limited progress in tackling medium-term challenges related to rising social security and Medicare costs due to an aging population.”
Fitch also mentions that a significant rise to deficit-to-GDP ratio and while citing debt-limit brinkmanship, laments that the deal that was reach was only “a modest improvement to the medium-term fiscal outlook.”
Ryan began to wrap up his thoughts by urging higher taxes on those who “start their own space program” and “when you have a toxic political environment, you don't have a Charlie Dent and a Tim Ryan who were buddies when we were in Congress, sitting down, trying to figure out. You have nothing but poison. That's not going to stabilize things and so, yes, of course the political environment is going to affect the economic environment.”
While Ruhle did originally say “one of the factors,” the omissions of the other factors give the impression the credit downgrade is solely Republicans’ fault, which is not at all true and not at all what Fitch actually said.
This segment was sponsored by LifeLock.
Here is a transcript for the August 2 show:
MSNBC The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
8/2/2023
11:44 PM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: The power of our democracy, the power of our economy, Tim, just yesterday, Fitch, the rating agency, downgraded U.S. credit. And one of the factors was what happened on January 6th, was the gridlock, was the chaos created by the GOP, by these falsehoods and the misinformation getting pushed. Do people realize this, and how fragile things are? And do they care enough?
TIM RYAN: You know, I don't think they really understand or know. I mean, we've had this conversation, how many times, Steph? People are out there working, they're doing their jobs, they’re raising their kids, they’re trying to make a better -- their family. That's a grind and unfortunately, in 2023, the United States for a lot of people, that means you're working 12, 14 hours a day, you’re working six or seven days a week. You don't have the luxury, you know, 11:30 at night to turn on and, like, catch what's going on politically here.
But clearly, there's always been a tie to stability in a country's government, and their economic growth opportunities. And when you have this level of toxicity, dysfunction, division in the country, it ends up affecting, your economic stability, but it's also, you know, huge tax cuts, and me and Charlie may have a conversation about, this but the huge tax cuts that blew a huge hole in the deficit after two wars and after the Bush tax cuts, yeah, of course, you know, we're running deficits that are huge.
We've got to close those gaps. We can't be afraid to ask the people who can fund themselves to, like, go into outer space, and start their own space program personally, like to pay a little bit more to help us and Democrats need to understand that the government is broken, and we need a better way of doing things more effective way, efficient way, not to waste as much money, preventative health care, and all the rest. Like, these systems are all broken.
But when you have a toxic political environment, you don't have a Charlie Dent and a Tim Ryan who were buddies when we were in Congress, sitting down, trying to figure out. You have nothing but poison. That's not going to stabilize things and so, yes, of course the political environment is going to affect the economic environment.
